My gorgeous Swedish model

Cheers for the info fat controller

I've had a read of the Volvo FAQs, and it seems the air con system is a bit more clever than I thought. It simply wont bother to come on if its already nithering out. I was down the sea front when I tried, where although sunny, a sea breeze meant it was officially nithering, so quite possibly that's why it didn't do anything.

I have a full service record for the car, and the air con was recharged just last year, so I'm not writing the air con off just yet.

As for the high fuel consumption, I'm starting to think its not as bad as I originally thought. Its worth noting that although I've driven turbo cars before, they've been diesel. Turbo+petrol+automatic = combination that is alien to me. I'm starting to get the hang of it now, but since getting it I have been quite unintentionally ragging it a bit. Not driving around fast, just that my right foot has been resulting in the poor autobox being unable to work out what I want, so she's been knocking the gears down and spinning the turbo all over the place. Its quite embarrassing doing 30 mph with the engine revving at 4000rpm and the turbo whirring away, then I ease off, so she changes up, slows down (because I've eased off), so I give her a bit more throttle and she says 'ooh, he said go!' and away she goes again. I'm starting to get the hang of gentle throttle control now, and trusting the autobox a bit more, and she seems happier for it, and we still make as swift progress.

I've got new HT leads and plugs coming soon. My money's on that plus my driving technique.

Bad news if the MAF does turn out to be dead. They're around £400 for genuine Bosch (which Volvo used) or £150 for cheapo nomake. Good news is though I have a known good spare MAF. I'd read that they were a relatively common failure on the older 940s due to a design blunder in the air box (a tiny little fault that can result in very hot air from next to the exhaust manifold constantly running through the MAF), so I kept it when the rest of the car went to scrap. I intended to sell it but never got round to it, so now I have a working spare.

 

I found the intercooler. It didn't half confuse me at first. I followed a fat pipe from the turbo to what appeared to be the radiator, then another one from the radiator to the throttle body. At first I thought it was some sort of weird botch job until I realised it had an intercooler. The point of the turbo in my car is to produce a more linear power curve for comfort, not for racing, so I didn't expect to see things like intercoolers in there.

As an aside, it took me a while to find the turbo. I knew it was the 'LPT' (low pressure turbo) one, but didn't realise it would be so small. Its like a little hair dryer, and oddly, it looks like only two of the four exhaust ports feed it, as the other two branches of the exhaust manifold seem to bypass it entirely.

What do you know about 'compressor bypass valves' aka blow-off or dump valves? Apparently mine has one (again, not what I'd expect given that its not a boy racer car). Someone said the pipes to it looked a bit corroded and therefore the valve might be spent. I asked them what consequence that would have, but they had no idea other than possible loss of boost. The boost is there though.

 

My relationship with Gotilda/Agnetha is on the rocks. I didn't intentionally buy a restoration project. She came with a full service history and the backing of a dedicated Volvo enthusiast, but so far apart from rebuilding the ignition, I've had to repair the driver's seat, fix an indicator (the whole unit, not simply a failed bulb), clean up a load of corroded electrical connectors, and commission my mate to build me a gadget that reads fault codes out of the car's computer. I've just forked out more money again (nearly £100 this time) for a new ABS wheel sensor in the hope that my intermittent ABS fault is indeed the sensor, as the computer says it is. I need to fix the coolant leak from the thermostat housing, and find out why there was a horrible metallic crunching noise came from the offside rear wheel when I pulled the handbrake while parking up once.

Oh, and joy of all joys (had to do this once before) I have to take half the front of the car apart to get to the failing windscreen wiper mechanism, and when I've done all that I need to find out why the car keeps telling me that a bulb has failed when as far as I can see they all work fine, and find out why the air conditioning doesn't work.

Sorry for the whinge, just had to get that off my chest.

 

The honeymoon is over then Clueless! I'm sorry to hear she's giving you trouble, perhaps all these problems are because she didn't like her new name/names. Perhaps once you've sorted all these issues she'll settle down, fingers crossed.

You're allowed to whinge once in a while, hope it made you feel better.

 

Could be. Could also be the handbrake shoes flopping about uselessly on one side.

Possibly. I've cleaned up all the electrics and earth connections I could find. I suspect its either a bulb on its way out, or the pointless relay on its way out. Said relay soon will be on its way out, as in I'm going to identify which one of the many it is, and extract it. Bulb failure warning lights are as useful as chocolate fire guards in my opinion.

I had this issue on my previous 940. The wipers are noise and sort of juddering. Last time I replaced the whole mechanism, but in hindsight that was probably not necessary. This time I'll just take it out, give it a good clean and grease it all up, and refit the same one. Last time I had to do it it took over 3 hours, but that was with many breaks, and probably an hour of that time was me huffing and puffing as I struggled to get the body panel that you have to remove, perfectly aligned so that it would go back on. You have to sort of slot it in at a certain angle, and sort of lower it, slide back, and tilt all at the same time in order for it to slot into place. Its not technically difficult, but very frustratingly fiddly.

I read an article by a bloke who'd removed and discarded the aircon gubbins, figuring its pointless extra weight to carry given that British weather rarely gives need of aircon. I'm half tempted to follow suit. Otherwise I will just let the garage have a go at that bit.

 

Sorry to read you are having trouble with her again, too many things going wrong spoils your enjoyment of a car!!

Val

 

A few days ago now I disconnected the suspect ABS sensor so I could get the multimeter on it. I thought to myself, "that came off easy". When I'd done I pushed it back together and thought to myself, "that doesn't feel very secure", so I pushed it again more forcefully, the connector clicked very positively, and so far, not a hint of a problem with ABS.

Wiper mechanism has been removed today, cleaned and greased, and refitted.

The bulb failure warning light isn't lying to me after all. Volvos always have their side lights on as long as the engine is running. All four corners plus the rear number plate all light up BUT, I noticed that the nearside front is only half as bright as the offside. On closer inspection, it seems either the bulb is dual filament or there are two bulbs per side. Either way one side is using two filaments, the other only one.

Agnetha is a lovely motor after all.

 

Of course she is, she just needs some TLC then she'll purrr like a kitten.

Val

 

The honeymoon's back on then Clueless? She was just testing you to keep you on your toes.

 

Its official now. Agnetha is not called Agnetha. My son thinks its a silly name, and the more I think about it, the more I agree.

So, our newest family member is now, Gotilda.